| Tuesday, December 13, 2005 |
08:59 - FireWire at will
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The more I think about it, and the more details are pointed out to me, the more I think the rumors that Apple will be dropping FireWire in its upcoming computers have got to be wrong.
First of all, as a friend reminds me, every DV camcorder on the market is FireWire-based—especially the ones made by Sony, who's an even more staunch backer of FireWire than Apple is. iMovie is still a major selling point for the consumer Macs (iBooks, iMacs, Mac minis), and they're the non-upgradeable ones—shipping them without the ability to support DV is just ludicrous. Hell, even Windows Movie Maker is pretty much useless if you don't have one of those grudgingly named "IEEE 1394" ports. And besides, as it turns out, not even the pro-grade video gear is FireWire 800 yet—nothing is, really, except for some external hard drives. The video industry is FireWire 400 and that's where it's going to stay, so Apple had better be planning to keep its hand in.
Oh, and as for USB 2.0 being faster than FireWire 400, it bears repeating that that's not true either. Yes, USB 2.0 is nominally 480 Mbps to FireWire's 400—but that's the burst rate. USB's sustained rate is much lower. FireWire is at 400 all the time. Just look at the numbers:
Read and write tests to the same IDE hard drive connected using FireWire and then Hi-Speed USB 2.0 show:
Read Test:
5000 files (300 MB total) FireWire was 33% faster than USB 2.0
160 files (650MB total) FireWire was 70% faster than USB 2.0
Write Test:
5000 files (300 MB total) FireWire was 16% faster than USB 2.0
160 files (650MB total) FireWire was 48% faster than USB 2.0
Which just makes the USB-only iPod all the more mysterious a decision. Is it really worth taking that kind of a speed hit in the interest of saving a few bucks? I'd been under the impression that the FireWire/USB2 connectivity in the iPod was a single-chip solution, so dropping FireWire won't have saved them any space in the enclosure; it can only have been about simplifying the cables, if Apple's not actually phasing out FireWire. And that seems like a strange compromise for Steve to make.
Just the same, though, they're selling bazillions of iPods this Christmas, and will probably reap an even higher profit margin than they did last year—not just because of the higher volume thanks to the ever-increasing mindshare and the Next Big Thing that persists in not showing up, but because of the fact that they've greatly streamlined the packaging this time around. iPod boxes aren't the cubes anymore, they're about half the thickness—which means they don't come with Docks anymore or a lot of the other doodads they used to put in the box. That undoubtedly saves them quite a bit of cash on every box—not to mention getting the iPod's price down into the sweet spot below their competitors. Simplifying the cable to USB-only probably saves them another few bucks, and multiplying that by however many million units they move this season probably means whoever came up with the idea earned himself a nice bonus. Just because Steve's in charge doesn't mean Apple doesn't have stockholders to answer to, too.
(Meanwhile, speaking of sweet spots, it sure looks like Apple has cracked all but the toughest nuts, huh?)
Killing FireWire now would be a pretty dumb move, it seems to me. So far the only real evidence we have for it is the iPod's USB switch, and maybe we can attribute that to the fact that the iPod's just not a Mac product anymore.
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Brian Tiemann
